Land in Oxford and Great Marlow, Bucks., Bequeathed by John Browne (Master 1745–64), 1755-1971

1 UNIV ONLINE CATALOGUES UC:E23 - LAND IN OXFORD AND GREAT MARLOW, BUCKS., BEQUEATHED BY JOHN BROWNE (MASTER 1745–64), 1755-1971 John Browne, from Marton, Yorkshire, came up to University College in May 1704, and was elected a scholar in November 1705. He was then elected a Skirlaw Fellow on 23 August 1711. As a Fellow, Browne held many of the major offices of the College, in particular acting as Bursar during the 1720s. During the great Mastership dispute at the College of the 1720s, when two Fellows both claimed to be Master, Browne supported Thomas Cockman, the ultimate victor. In 1738 Brown was appointed Archdeacon of Northampton, and he resigned his Fellowship in February 1738/9. In 1745, however, he returned to University College on being elected Master. Brown remained Master, still retaining his archdeaconry, until his death on 7 August 1764. He had served as Vice-Chancellor from 1750–3. In addition to the preceding posts, Brown had also been vicar of Long Compton, Warks, for half a century, and in 1743 he was appointed a canon of Peterborough Cathedral. Browne had prospered in his ecclesiastical career, and he remained a bachelor. On his death in 1764, therefore, Browne proved a major benefactor to his old College. Not only did he bequeath his extensive library to the College for the use of successive Masters, but he also left a house at 88 High Street Oxford (now the site of Durham Buildings) and some property at Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, to trustees, both to endow new undergraduate scholarships, but also to augment the stipends of existing scholarships whose value had declined with time. Full details of how the money was to be spent are given at UC:E23/W1/1 below. Browne’s library was installed in the Master’s Lodgings, which were then situated on the east range of Radcliffe Quadrangle, and when the current Lodgings were built in the 1870s, the new dining room there was built specially to store the books and their shelves which were moved into there. The properties bequeathed by Browne were subject to certain life interests, and the first payments for his scholarships, and the augmentation of other scholarships, only came into effect in 1781. Both properties were administered by a succession of trustees, and managed quite separately from the other properties of the College until 1882, when, after the last trustees had died, the properties were formally amalgamated with those of the College. The house in Oxford became an inn known as the “Alfred’s Head”, and two small adjoining pieces of land owned by Magdalen College were leased out to the trustees. In 1867, however, the “Alfred’s Head”, was taken over the College and converted into student rooms, and renamed “University Hall”. This building remained in use until the end of the 19 th century, after which it was demolished and replaced by Durham Buildings. Some sixteenth- century panelling in one of the rooms, however, was salvaged and re-erected in the Senior Common Room. Documents on the later life of this building (including some plans of it), and on Durham Buildings, may be found at UC:FA12 . Meanwhile the property in Great Marlow was duly leased out. Some cottages had been let to the Overseers of the Poor, and used for the occupation of paupers, and were sold in 1831. The remaining properties, however, which became known as Burford Hill Farm, remained in College hands until they were all sold in 1925. Archivist: Dr Robin Darwall-Smith E: [email protected] T: +44 (0)1865 276 952 2 UNIV ONLINE CATALOGUES UC:E23 - LAND IN OXFORD AND GREAT MARLOW, BUCKS., BEQUEATHED BY JOHN BROWNE (MASTER 1745–64), 1755-1971 The documents in this collection include almost no items relating to the properties before their acquisition by Browne. They then include deeds relating to the creation of new trustees, leases for the various properties, correspondence, financial papers, and some three drawings relating to a rebuilding of Burford Farm in the 1840s. All the items in this collection were found in the archives during the stocktaking of July 1993, except for UC:E23/D1/1 , UC:E23/W1/1 , UC:E23/D2/3–4, 6–7, 9–10 & 14–17 , and UC:E23/C1/34 , which were transferred from the Estates Bursary in October 2017 as part of Accession No. 1292. Further reading: E. Adams, ‘”To be esteemed and go with them as and in the manner of Heir looms”: a Preliminary Introduction to the Browne Collection’, University College Record Vol. XVI no. 1 (2011), pp. 88–95. R. Darwall-Smith, A History of University College, Oxford (Oxford, 2008), Chapters 11–12. Catalogued in September 2019. UC:E23/D1 - THE PURCHASE OF PROPERTY IN GREAT MARLOW UC:E23/D1/1 10 Nov 1755 Release following (missing) Lease for a Year Parties : 1. (a) George Harman, late of Eton, Bucks, and now of Uxbridge, Middx., Cooper. (b) Elizabeth, wife of 1a. (c) Susanna Fleetwood of New Windsor, Berks (1b and 1c are the only children and co-heirs of Richard Fleetwood, late of Great Marlow Bucks., Yeoman, who died intestate). 2. The Revd. John Browne, Master of University College, Oxford, DD. Property : (1) Messuage or tenement formerly occupied by Richard Fleetwood and now by John Gibbons, Brewer, situated in Great Marlow, Bucks., near a lane called Dean Lane. (2) A parcel of land containing 1 acre and 1 rood on part of which the said messuage was once built and now lying in the common field of Great Marlow, between Dean Lane on part of the west, and part of the land formerly belonging to Blunts Farm on part of the east. (3) Five cottages or tenements being near Dean Lane and near adjoining the said message, formerly occupied by Richard Fleetwood, or William Redding, [blank ] Coleshill, James Camplin and John Deane his tenants, and now or late of William Colsell, James Plumridge, Robert Osborne, William Johnson and [ blank ] White. (4) Two cottages or tenements on the north side of Dean Close once occupied by Robert Deeley and George Penny, and now or lately by Thomas Weedon and William Johnson. Archivist: Dr Robin Darwall-Smith E: [email protected] T: +44 (0)1865 276 952 3 UNIV ONLINE CATALOGUES UC:E23 - LAND IN OXFORD AND GREAT MARLOW, BUCKS., BEQUEATHED BY JOHN BROWNE (MASTER 1745–64), 1755-1971 (5) A small part of land containing a quarter of an acre adjoining the same two cottages. (6) Two cottages or tenements in Dean Lane now occupied by William Former and Robert Harman, with the outhouses belonging. (7) Several pieces of arable land containing 21 acres or so, lying dispersed in the common fields of Great Marlow, lately occupied by [ blank ] East and now by Richard Webb or his undertenants, as follows: (i) 5 acres lies together near the said messuage in the common fields of Great Marlow, and were formerly the estate of Robert Fleetwood, decd., father of Richard Fleetwood, and given to Roger under the will of his father. (ii) One half acre lies in the Great Common Field, abutting on the end of an orchard thereof, which land was formerly purchased by Roger Fleetwood of John Langley. (iii) Five and a half acres are dispersed in several parts of the Great Common Field, as follows: one acre leys in the Upper Field, between the land once of Roger Fleetwood to the west and land formerly of Samuel Smith to the north; one and a half acres lying together in the Great Common Field, with land formerly of Jonathan Hammond on both sides; one acre in the Common Field, with land formerly of Roger Fleetwood to the east, and land formerly of Samuel Smith to the north; one and a half acres in the same Common Field, with land formerly of Jonathan Hammond on both sides; and a half acre in Chapel Field between lane formerly of Jonathan Hammond on one side and the Widow Element to the other. These five and half acres were formerly purchased by Roger Fleetwood of John Herne and others. (iv) Ten acres of land are dispersed in the Great Common Field in the parish of Great Marlow. All these properties were lately the freehold estate of Richard Fleetwood, (8) Any other properties of 1 in Great Marlow. Consideration : £510. UC:E23/D1/2 n.d. (after 1755?) Abstract of title to lands at Great Marlow purchased by John Brown in 1755 from Thomas Petken. UC:E23/D1/3 n.d. (19 th cent.) Extract from UC:E23/D1/1 above, setting out the properties in Great Marlow sold to John Browne. UC:E23/W1 - THE WILL OF JOHN BROWNE UC:E23/W1/1 11 Mar 1763 Undated copy of the will of John Browne, DD., Master of University College. Among other bequests, he leased a messuage in the parish of St. Peter in the East to John Honchill and Richard Smith for their natural lives, and his estate at Great Marlow, Bucks., to his trustees, Francis Yarborough, DD, Principal of Brasenose College, William Gower, DD, Provost of Worcester College, and Archivist: Dr Robin Darwall-Smith E: [email protected] T: +44 (0)1865 276 952 4 UNIV ONLINE CATALOGUES UC:E23 - LAND IN OXFORD AND GREAT MARLOW, BUCKS., BEQUEATHED BY JOHN BROWNE (MASTER 1745–64), 1755-1971 Thomas Walker, Gent., Town Clerk of Oxford. The trustees are to use the income from Browne’s estate (subject to the life interests mentioned above) for the following purposes at University College: To pay the senior Freeston Scholar £10 a year to augment his stipend.

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